Contact details

About

Mr Calamita combines research with practice in the field of public international law. His work includes advising governments on issues related to international investment law and the settlement of international disputes.

He is presently seconded to the British Institute of International & Comparative Law in London, where he serves as the Director of the Investment Treaty Forum and a Senior Fellow of the Institute. He continues to teach graduate-level seminars at the Law School.

Qualifications

BA (Connecticut College)

JD (Boston)

BCL (Oxon)

Admitted to practice in the State of New York and District of Columbia.

Biography

N. Jansen Calamita joined Birmingham Law School in September 2008. Prior to joining the University of Birmingham, Mr Calamita was a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford and a visiting fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford. He has also been a visiting fellow of the University of Vienna and an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University in Virginia.

Prior to entering academics, Mr Calamita served in the Office of the Legal Adviser in the U.S Department of State (International Claims and Investment Disputes), representing the United States before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and in bilateral investment matters, and in the Office of Legal Affairs at the United Nations in Vienna as a member of the UNCITRAL Secretariat. He has also been in private practice in New York, specializing in complex international arbitration and litigation.

He is a graduate of the Boston University Law School (J.D. summa cum laude) and the University of Oxford (BCL). He is admitted to practice in the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Teaching

International Investment Law (LLM, module leader)

International Commercial Arbitration (LLM, module leader)

Postgraduate supervision

Public International Law

International Dispute Settlement

International Investment Law

Research

Mr Calamita’s research focuses on the development of international legal norms and the creation of enforcement mechanisms for those norms. In particular, Mr Calamita is presently looking at State treaty-making practice in the area of foreign investment, examining the substantive content of its development and theorizing about the socio-political and economic forces which bring about changes in treaty structure and norms.

Publications

The U.N. Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A Missed Opportunity? (shorter article in progress).

Rights, Proportionality and Standards of Review in the International Law of Investment: The Problematic Push to Constitutionalism (longer article in progress).

Editor, Current Issues in Investment Treaty Law: International Investment Law and Its Intersections and the Future of ICSID (collected work forthcoming BIICL 2012)

International Human Rights and the Interpretation of Investment Treaties – Constitutional Considerations in Freya Baetens (Ed.), The Interaction of International Investment Law with Other Fields of Public International Law (collected work forthcoming Cambridge Univ. Press 2012).

The Making of Europe’s International Investment Policy: Uncertain First Steps, 39 Legal Issues of Economic Integration301-330(2012).

“Structuring Investment Treaties for Financial and Monetary Crises” – Global Investment Governance Workshop, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (28 June 2012).

“The Countermeasures Defense in International Investment Law” – Recent Developments in Investor-State Arbitration: Consent and Jurisdiction, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London (11 May 2012).

“International Human Rights and the Interpretation of Investment Treaties – Constitutional Considerations” – The Interaction of International Investment Law with Other Fields of Public International Law, University of Leiden (4-5 April 2011).

“Chinese Investment in African Natural Resources: Modes of Engagement, Questions of Responsibility and Standards of Protection“ – Legal Issues in Oil and Gas, London (28 March 2011).

Conferences and Seminars Convened

Nineteenth Public Conference of the Investment Treaty Forum: The Regionalization of InvestmentTreaty Arrangements: Developments and Implications, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London (14 September 2012).

Investment Treaty Forum Seminar: The Uneasy Relationship between Green Growth and International Economic Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, convened with the University of Liverpool (25 June 2012).

Eighteenth Public Conference of the Investment Treaty Forum: Recent Developments in Investor-State Arbitration: Consent and Jurisdiction, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London (11 May 2012).

Investment Treaty Forum Seminar: Costs in Investor-State Arbitration: Is a Consensus Emerging?, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, funded by Latham & Watkins, LLP, London (5 Oct. 2011).

Seventeenth Public Conference of the Investment Treaty Forum: International Investment Law and Its Intersections, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London (9 Sept. 2011).

The Treaty of Lisbon and the Impact on European International Investment Policy, convened with University of Liverpool (12 Sept. 2011).

Investment Treaty Law Seminar: Treaty Shopping v. Treaty Planning and the EU as a New Actor, funded by Italian Forum for Arbitration, Rome (6 June 2011).

Sixteenth Public Conference of the Investment Treaty Forum: Is There a Customary International Law of Investment?, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London (6 May 2011).

The Ins and Outs of CIETAC Arbitration: Arbitrating under the Rules of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, funded by Clifford Chance LLP, London (15 Apr. 2011).

Investment Treaty Forum Seminar: Standards of Compensation and Measures of Value in International Investment Arbitration: Ships Passing in the Night?, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, funded by FTI Consulting, London (2 March 2011).

Impact of Bribery and Corruption on the International Arbitral Process, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, funded by Freshfields Bruckhaus & Deringer, London (18 Jan. 2011).